


Better With Age

by audiaphilios



Series: From Tumblr With Lo-- [28]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Future Fic, Gardens & Gardening, M/M, Retirement, TV Host Bitty, Vintner Jack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-18 23:25:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9407501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/audiaphilios/pseuds/audiaphilios
Summary: The land is gorgeous, and Jack feels himself, improbably, wanting to grow here. Grow stronger, grow happier, grow older. Grow plants, grow a family.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Keezey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keezey/gifts).



> Keezey prompted:  
> Gardener Jack: After retiring from hockey he's kinda bored. Alicia suggests he grow herbs and sends him a kitchen windowsill garden to start. He falls in love + discovers he has green fingers. Before u know it he grows all fruit Bitty needs for pies
> 
> [Originally posted to tumblr July 28, 2016.](http://audiaphilios.tumblr.com/post/148068230230/gardener-jack-after-retiring-from-hockey-hes)

When Jack retires, they buy a place in the Shenandoah Valley, in western Virginia. They had discovered the Blue Mountains together on a meandering road trip down to Georgia one off-season, taking I-81 S rather than the more coastal route. They’d thought about sticking closer to the big cities, but it was just Southern enough to pacify Bitty’s heart, and just isolated enough, in an area rich with history, for Jack. It was about halfway between Madison and Providence, and only an hour or so from DC. Heck, if they wanted to drive to Montreal, it was less than 11 hours. It was ideal, in that way.

It was ideal in a few other ways, as well. Jack was able to rehabilitate well with the mountain hikes nearby, and he found more peace in the outdoors than he expected, after his time in the rink was over. He liked the creek that wandered its way through their property, the rolling hills that were much bigger than they seemed at first glance. The gentleness of the place, the peace. It doesn’t get too hot, or too cold. The land is gorgeous, and Jack feels himself, improbably, wanting to grow here. Grow stronger, grow happier, grow older. Grow plants, grow a family.

The thing is, Jack is 110% about his gardens and orchards. He loves how much time and attention and _care_  it requires to graft trees. He imagines, when planting them, that they’re symbols of his love for Bitty, their love for one another. He daydreams, when they’re just twigs really, about the days when their kids will climb them, build houses in them, swing from them. The days when Bitty’s pies will be filled with his fruit, when their house will be filled with all the love they can grow.

He starts a vineyard, as well, and keeps bees to brew mead. As their kids arrive, he bottles a special vintage for their birth year, to drink with them in celebration later. He becomes known as a winemaker, a perfect match to his popular TV-host husband. They build more onto their property, an on-site winery with a gorgeously-appointed entertaining space so they can do cellar door events catered by Bitty, and Bitty can host special events of his own featuring Jack’s wines.

Their kids climb the trees, learn to wield secateurs, speak French with ease to both their fathers. The family travels to France and Italy to see the old wine countries, and California and Australia to see new. Madeleine picks up Spanish as well, so they head to Chile and Argentina.

And when they are home, Jack can be found puttering around the vineyard, or the gardens, or the orchards, fingers thrust into the dirt or sampling a fruit, a quiet smile on his face and love in his heart. Bitty likes to find him out there, even now, decades after Samwell and hockey and first kisses, wrap an arm around his waist as he fits himself into Jack’s side, and watch that small smile grow as Jack takes in the hillsides and all the bounty they share.


End file.
